Bitmain Gets New CEO, AI Transforms Call Centers: Editor’s Pick

The closing week of March introduced many developments on the international alternate (foreign exchange) and cryptocurrency markets. In case you missed some, here’s a abstract of a few of the most fun tales in our “better of the week” evaluation.

Ran Strauss Retakes the CEO Position at Leverate

Ran Strauss, the co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Leverate is returning to his place after spending the previous 4 years in a much less energetic position.

The iFX EXPO is Back in Limassol!

As Finance Magnates reported completely, he’s changing Yasha Polyakov who resigned from the highest place after main the corporate since August 2017, citing fatigue as a crucial issue to his resignation.

MetaTrader Defies Odds, Increases Market Share

Despite critics lengthy anticipating the demise of MetaQuotes’ MetaTrader 4, the FX buying and selling platform stays the business normal after 15 years. Not solely that, however as Finance Magnates’ Victor Golovtchenko analysed, the platform truly managed to extend its market share in 2018.

As highlighted within the evaluation, in the course of the first quarter of 2018, above 50 per cent of whole foreign currency trading volumes exterior of Japan had been traded by way of MT4. Towards the tip of the yr, the composition of the market shifted even additional in favour of the legacy platform of MetaQuotes.

Alfa-Forex Abandons Retail Offering

FX dealer based mostly in Cyprus, Alfa-Forex, introduced this week that it’s going to now not offer its companies to particular person purchasers and different customers that are categorised as “retail” below MiFID, from the tip of June 2019.

Alfa-Forex, which is the buying and selling identify of Alfa Capital Holdings (Cyprus) Limited, acknowledged that the reasoning for its choice was pushed by Alfa Capital’s strategic choice to give attention to its institutional enterprise.

In Europe, the retail buying and selling business has change into so much harder over the previous yr. However, whether or not Alfa-Forex’s transfer was additionally pushed by the tightening regulatory atmosphere within the area is only hypothesis.

How is Technology Changing Brokers’ Call Centres?

Call centres are an integral a part of many retail brokers and staff working over the cellphone could possibly be aside of a dealer’s compliance, gross sales, advertising and marketing or buyer help groups.

But how is know-how altering brokers’ name centres? An evaluation by our very personal David Kimberley got down to reply this query. He discovered that though name centres have modified little over the previous few many years, it’s wanting like that is about to alter.

One distinguished instance of this was when web large Google launched a demo of Duplex – a system that may make hyper-realistic automated cellphone calls in your behalf. To see what different modifications you may count on, you may learn the complete article right here.

Can IEOs Revive the Token Sale Industry?

Despite Bittrex’s current try to carry an preliminary alternate providing (IEO), which nearly resulted in a catastrophe, members within the cryptosphere are more and more questioning if IEOs may change preliminary coin choices (ICOs).

Although the ICO craze is over, and quite a few scams and failed initiatives have left buyers rather more skeptical, IEOs could possibly be a technique through which the token sale business makes a comeback.

But – nothing is bulletproof, as Rachel McIntosh analysed this week. You can discover out whether or not there’s actual potential in IEOs right here.

JFD Brokers Rebrands to JFD Bank

Just barely over one month after the corporate introduced that it was launching commission-free inventory buying and selling, JFD Group revealed completely to Finance Magnates that it had consolidated its retail and institutional companies below the model JFD Bank.

Now, all of the companies offered by the completely different entities of JFD Group of firms, together with these beforehand offered by the model JFD Brokers, at the moment are offered below one roof and may be accessed by way of the brand new web site www.jfdbank.com, changing jfdbrokers.com.

The identify change represents “the start of a brand new, much more thrilling a part of our journey,” in keeping with the founder and CEO of the Group, Lars Gottwik.

Labuan, Malaysia Emerges as a New Offshore Destination for the FX Exodus

In the aftermath of the brand new European Union laws, an offshore migration pattern emerged. However, with earlier havens like Vanuatu clamping down on laws, a brand new offshore vacation spot has surfaced – Malaysia’s offshore island of Labuan.

As Finance Magnates analysed, Labuan is likely one of the newest jurisdictions to formally provide a dealer licence and provides corporations beforehand Vanuatu an offshore different with extra relaxed laws.

Elaborating to Finance Magnates, David Woliner who’s Head of Financial Regulation at Nir Porat & Co. shared that an organization wants one shareholder and two administrators to get began. The minimal expertise required from administrators stands at three years, and not less than a diploma stage schooling.

Bitmain Appoints New CEO Amid Failed IPO Attempt

After months of rumours and a failed try to record itself on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Bitmain Technologies confirmed that it has a brand new CEO – Haichao Wang. Wang replaces the co-CEOs Wu Jihan and Zhan Ketuan, who had been additionally the co-founders of the corporate.

As Finance Magnates beforehand addressed, rumours had been circulating that there can be a change in management for Bitmain, with stories suggesting the choice was pushed by a disagreement between the founding duo over sure points.

David is the founder of DebtDefined.com. The firm originates business financing for companies of all size in the Canadian marketplace . Originations include business loans, term loans, asset based lines of credit, SR ED Tax credit financing , and receivable financing .